It was a slow day and I was getting ready to leave as a single spoony flies over and meets it's maker.

I took it home, breasted it out and saved the thigh and leg meat then (having never eaten a shoveler) planned on marinating it for a day in milk and another day in Italian dressing.

I got it in the milk and put it in the fridge where somewhere along the line someone took it out and it set it on the counter overnight. I found it the next morning and promptly switched it over to an Italian dressing bath and put it back in the fridge. The next day I found out I got the apartment I was hoping to get and could move in right away. The bathing spoony went into the freezer (still covered in italian dressing) and eventually got moved to the new apartment's freezer. It stayed there, forgotten, for about 3 months. I finally remembered what was in the container and decided to cook it up so, the Italian dressing ice cube went into the fridge overnight to thaw.

The next day I took it straight out of the bath, cut off a slice and fried it really quickly. Yuk... way to vinegary.I took the rest of the meat and plopped it in a cold water bath for a few minutes. Then took some of the meat out, rinsed it off, fried it and HOLY COW!

It was awesome.

I don't know if it was the 3 days of soaking in italian dressing, the 3 months of being frozen in italian dressing, the night spent in a milk bath on the counter or if SF Bay spoonbills just taste this way but it was really good. I think I'll try it again next year.